Note from Sandra: Steve posted this as a joke, for being so outrageous as to be self-parody. It’s hard to convey irony in text, and Question Technology revealed that some people took it seriously. Omni Brain doesn’t endorse the views of the revealed source, psychologist/racist Linda Gottfredson. It is indeed a “snippet of junk floating around the web” (76 Google search results); I’m not sure where Steve found it but he’s not espousing racism, classism, sexism, or any other ism evident in this chart.

I totally agree with Kristjan. This is why I don’t like the subject heading “why IQ matters” or the tag “stupid people”. IQ surely predicts a lot of things as your graph suggests, but I don’t think that IQ causes these things. I believe these things (especially socio-economic class and systematic race-based discrimination/privilege) cause IQ. Read Martha Farah’s stuff on poverty, stress and intelligence! It’s really interesting/sad how the interuterine (sp?) environment does a lot for the fetus, such that infants born to stressed out mothers living in poverty have lower intelligence before they even get started on life outside the womb.

1- First of all, IQ is not static during our lifetimes. So, what/ when are we measuring?

2- Second, the “career potential”, among others, comes accross more judgemental than data-based (which is why I’d like to see the data). How many kids with high IQ at school don’t end up being executives or succesful professionals? and vicaeversa? IQ does not cover even half of key cognitive and emotional skills needed for success at work and life, so I’d be surprised if it was such a predictor as the chart implies.

It’s not just the career potential section — the whole thing seems judgmental, like some unholy offspring of MENSA and the KKK. Whoever made the chart was certainly trying to support a particular point, and when I see such a clear intention, I think skepticism is in order.

That must be from one of Linda Gottfredson’s papers (I recognize the phrases like “Yours to lose”). Google her name; her website has lots of free journal articles of hers on intelligence & its real-world consequences.

I believe Agnostic was right when he implicated Linda Gottfredson for this chart, as the file name is “1198gottfred_table.gif” She has several MENSA entries on her CV so Michael Burton was right on the money with his comment too!

hmm…the headline isn’t nearly clever enough to indicate irony…and ironic intention alone doesn’t make for an amusing joke. It’s at best lame, and at worst like those SNL or Andrew Dice Clay jokes of the ’80s that were really misogynist, and the protest cry was “We’re making FUN of those people and their arrogant attitude.” Yeah…get the hateful rhetoric and mythology out there far and wide…as a joke. Great.

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